ment of an i or u-vowel: e. g. svàr or súvar, tanvè or tanúve, budhnyà or budhníya, rā́tryāi or rā́triyāi. For the most part, doubtless, these are only two ways of writing the same pronunciation, sú-ar, budhnía, and so on; and the discordance has no other importance, historical or phonetic. There is more or less of this difference of treatment of an i- or u-element after a consonant in all periods of the language.
e. In the older language, there is a marked difference, in respect to the frequency of vowel-combination for avoiding hiatus as compared with that of non-combination and consequent hiatus, between the class of cases where two vowel-sounds, similar or dissimilar, would coalesce into one (126, 127) and that where an i- or u-vowel would be converted into a semivowel. Thus, in word-composition, the ratio of the cases of coalesced vowels to those of hiatus are in RV. as five to one, in AV. as nineteen to one, while the cases of semivowel-conversion are in RV. only one in twelve, in AV. only one in five; in sentence-combination, the cases of coalescence are in both RV. and AV. about as seven to one, while those of semivowel-conversion are in RV. only one in fifty, in AV. one in five.
f. For certain cases of the loss or assimilation of i and u before y and v respectively, see 233 a.
130. As regards the accent — here, as in the preceding case (128), the only combination requiring notice is that of an acute i- or u-vowel with a following grave: the result is circumflex; and such cases of circumflex are many times more frequent than any and all others. Examples are:
व्यु॑ष्टि vyùṣṭi (ví-uṣṭi); अभ्य॑र्चति abhyàrcati;
नद्यौ॑ nadyāù (nadí-āu);
स्वि॑ष्ट svìṣṭa (sú-iṣṭa); तन्व॑स् tanvàs (tanū́-as).
a. Of a similar combination of acute ṛ́ with following grave, only a single case has been noted in accented texts: namely, vijñātr ètát (i.e. vijñātṛ́ etát: ÇB. xiv. 6. 811); the accentuation is in accordance with the rules for i and u.
131. Of a diphthong, the final i- or u-element is changed to its corresponding semivowel, य् y or व् v, before any vowel or diphthong: thus, ए e (really ai: 28 a) becomes अय् ay, and ओ o (that is, au: 28 a) becomes अव् av; ऐ āi becomes आय् āy, and औ āu becomes आव् āv.
a. No change of accent, of course, occurs here; each original syllable retains its syllabic identity, and hence also its own tone.
b. Examples can be given only for internal combination, since in external combination there are further changes: see the next paragraph. Thus,
नय naya (ne-a); नाय nāya (nāi-a);
भव bhava (bho-a); भाव bhāva (bhāu-a).
